The Only Ones In Mossflower
by Martin Grazier
Summary: The travels of Luke the... Otter? and Snowdrift the rat; Starting their adventures at Redwall Abbey, they travel the entirety of Mossflower, searching for family. Curious of where they're from and what they are, they travel on to find their history.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

I've spent my entire life compiling the story and the history of two very strange friends. Each once lived in our abbey, though when they found the home of the eldest, they decided to live with his family.

It is a story unlike others of Redwall. There were no large hordes, or power-obsessed leaders. The story is of two unlikely friends and their quest to discover their families, and where they come from. So, if you're willing, come hither to Cavern Hole, and I promise you a story with excitement and adventure, and beasts you thought were only myths.

Our story starts, as most stories do, in the middle of a rather cool summer. The sun was just rising over the abbey walls, and the two friends sat with their backs to it. Each had been in a discussion since late the night before, and were warming their backs from the chill each felt……


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

"Luke, are you sure you can't remember anything else?"

The words came from a soft spoken voice. The speaker was a tall and lithe maid, wearing a pale blue smock and a straw hat. Her paws were clasping one another in a conservative way, latching themselves across her small stomach.

"A fire? It's more than you've remembered before… Are you sure it wasn't a dream that you had, or your imagination acting up?"

She pressed a caring paw around her compatriot's shoulder and gave him a rather rare smile. Her paw moved across her brow, and revealed her eyes; the strangest anyone had seen… They were each a pale pink, and contrasted completely with her perfectly white fur.

The abbey scholar, Brother Micah had spent a full season looking for what caused her strange eye discoloration, and in the late winter had finally discovered it in an old tome;

The affliction happens before one is born. However uncommon, it happens with all beasts; respectable and non alike. No matter, however, the parents act, each babe born with this is extremely mild-tempered, and tends to do behave like a sensible creature.

Some know them as 'albyno' or as 'ghost' creatures. Though their eyes are red, or pink, they may resemble a badger's bloodwrath, but their eyes are afflicted all of the time. Many say that their eyes are very sensitive to light, and have a more susceptibility to blindness in an older age. It is advised for them to wear hats, or bandanas the guard from the sun.

She fixed the shade hat across her eyes, and stood to her full height. Though she was raised from a dibbun(a name given to the younglings of the abbey) within the abbey, and by the abbey's standards had been one of the most well behaved dibbuns, she was not the typical abbey beast. She was what most seem to think the enemy- and, on more than one occasion, a new creature to the abbey would mistake her for those she resembles. She was, in fact, a rat.

"Aye, Snowdrift."

The reply came from her friend, though a tad belated on his part.

Luke, when he arrived, had been one of the most talked about of all Redwall beasts. Even more so then his partner, Snowdrift the rat, he had rumors about him told time and time again.

The otters treated him like one of them, though truly he knew he wasn't. Unlike Snowdrift, he had not been raised in the abbey from a dibbun. He had been brought the previous season to the abbey, near drowned and beaten to exhaustion.

He had a strange accent, though similar to the otters. When he himself stood, he was near-giant, only one person in the building was taller than he. The abbot, Tabura, the ancient badger.

Luke had been named aptly, after the father of Martin the Warrior. Luke himself had no other name, to his knowledge. When he arrived, he had no name, nor an idea of who or even what he was. His body was pockmarked with white scars, including one which was spread across his back in a burned pattern, more than likely a branding. It was a large brand, which held the design of a rose.

Unlike his friend, all he wore was a pair of loose black and red striped pants, held up by a belt. It would seem, though, he was one of a seafaring folk, as he wore many bracelets and necklaces; shiny things of glamour were a bit of an interest to him.

Four things set him apart from all other otters.

The first, was that he had no ears. This was the easiest to explain, that perhaps he had them removed when he was beaten so severely. It was understandable, it wouldn't be the first time it happened to a poor beast.

The second, and next easiest, was a flat rudder. Unlike an otter's, it was quite flat. Perhaps it was stepped on, they pondered.

The last two were the hardest to explain.

A large spur was on the back of his paws. An unlucky beast had been caught with this when he was ill, and in his feverish state he had kicked the poor creature with it, and apparently was quite venomous. The creature, a vole, had been in the infirmary with him as they both got better. Fortunately, the two got on well enough, and the vole forgave him.

The oddest, was his snout. Or rather, he had a lack there of. In fact, his face more so resembled that of a duck than any type of beast the rest of the abbey dwellers had seen. Luke, as he had come to be called, had the beak of a bird.

Snowdrift and Luke were quick to become friends, as each received strange looks from those that didn't know them. Drift, as most people called her, had taken care of him while he was in the infirmary. Keeping him comfortable, they had talked long hours of what had happened to him. Trying, she attempted to help him remember who and what he was, and where he was from.

"I remember a fire, and then a burning… It o'course could be me back, but, I donno me little love."

Drift glanced on his back, and nodded knowingly at the large mark across it, before casting a paw towards the abbey.

"Look at the tiny dibbuns, sneaking out… I suppose we ought to stop them, as I doubt they are up to any good."

Luke smiled at her rather mischievously.

"We could go and figure out what they be doin'. If'fin it be worth it, may'aps we could 'alp 'em… I do remember those nice chestnuts we procured with their 'alp last week, and I think we owes them…."

She nodded, and they slipped over to the young ones, and crept up behind them. Had the dibbuns been alert to their surroundings, they could have spotted the large shadows in their wake. As usual, though, the young ones were concentrating on one thing only.

"Burr'aye, libbluns. We'z been smart, yezz'arm. If'z we go on in'na star peckens the burries, thenz we gessam furst, ayeaye."

This came from the obvious leader of the small band of dibbuns, a certain Darri, who smoke in the soft and strange speech of the moles.

"Ahh! Puzzem me down, mizzer Lewkz! Noz, h'alp me, h'alp me sommirz!"

Luke had sneaked up and grabbed the little beast and put him on his shoulders.

"Stealing the berries from the garden… Such things mean you need to get off to the Abbot… Tsk tsk, unless you can apologize and promise to not do it no more…."

"Oh yez, I promizz burr, aye!"

"Give him here, Luke, tut tut."

Drift reached out her arms, and picked up the little one. She held the dibbun to her and shook her head.

"Shame on you, scaring this poor, innocent little dibbun who never did anything… Must have been sleep walkin', since it's only him out here…"

And it was true. All of the others had fled at the first sight of the giant creature, running off to hide in their bunks. The children adored Luke, but always tried to hide from him with a game of hide'n find.

Luke smiled at her, and sighed, walking inside.

"I s'pose you're right, Miss Drift… I was a bit harsh on the blighter…. My sincerest apologies, me buckoe."

He patted Darri on the head, and they walked in.

"M'yaps I can make it up to you… Why don't we stroll to the kitchens and get an early breakfast?"

The dibbun nodded quickly, agreeing to this.

"Sconez'n honeys sounz good, burr aye, zurr!"

With that, the three headed off to the abbey kitchens, to try and get a hold of Friar Rotha.


End file.
